 Urban Shrinkage in Parkstad LimburgKoen Elzerman and Marco Bontje European Planning Studies, 2015, vol. 23, issue 1, 87-103 Abstract: Once a flourishing mining area, Parkstad Limburg in the south of the Netherlands is now facing limited economic vitality and structural changes in its demographic composition. In a process of selective migration, young and highly educated people tend to move out of the region, while elderly and less- educated people stay. Shrinkage in Parkstad Limburg has resulted in a declining basis for economic activity, an unbalanced housing market, and policy responses in order to deal with these phenomena. Unfortunately acceptance of the phenomenon is a difficult step and a time-consuming process. While after years of denial most politicians and policy-makers in Parkstad Limburg have finally accepted the decline, the inhabitants of the region have to be confronted with inconvenient decisions like demolishing houses and the closure of public facilities. Based on the findings in Parkstad Limburg, it is concluded that a suitable policy response consists of the acceptance of shrinkage, developing a long-term vision, engaging the inhabitants in the process, restructuring the housing market, and fostering intensive regional collaboration. Date: 2015 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:eurpls:v:23:y:2015:i:1:p:87-103 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1080/09654313.2013.820095 Access Statistics for this article European Planning Studies is currently edited by Philip Cooke and Louis Albrechts More articles in European Planning Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.